Info: Charging and Ghosting, Trials of the C860 Options

[Bundabrg]

Hi All,

I've had a hectic week with my Z and I thought I'd post what happened and how I fixed it. A lot of info I got from this group so it really is a good repositry of information.

Anyway, for some reason my 'Digicom Universal Charger' 5V 1.0Amp decided to quit it and didn't charge my Z. I didn't notice till the battery actually went totally flat. After paying $50AUD on my charger I was a bit annoyed that it decided to quit, but apparently the eletronics shop won't replace a charger (Which I guess I can understand). I bought another one, same V same Amp.

Now I accidently reversed the polarity and my Z didn't start charging. After quickly realising my mistake (with heart in my throat and sweaty palms now), I switched the polarity so that the 'Center' is positive and the 'Outside' is negative.

Now my Z charged for maybe 2 minues, then the charge light started flashing on and off slowly. It certainly didn't charge enough to even start. I'm not sure even now if this was caused by the reversed polarity or the fact that it totally flattened.

Anyway, I suppose I should mention that my battery is an EA-BL08, that is supposed to charge to 4.2V apparently. Measuring between + and - with a multimeter showed a voltage of about 2.2V.

Now I can of course boot up fine with 'D+B', logging in as root and issueing a 'reboot' with the power plugged in.

I plugged it into the power and brought up the diagnostic screen with 'D+M'. Went to page 3, EXTRAS, 'Normal Diag Mode' and hit 'Clear Adjust Values', which blanked out 'Tablet' 'COM' and 'PHASE' on the main screen. This did not help (and in fact I think this has nothing to do with the battery charging).

Then went to Page 2, Batt Voltage Adjust, 'Battery Voltage Check'. It showed the following: -

CODE

Main Bat AD: 113 (2.2V)

Flash Data: ----

Seemed that the unit didn't know how much to charge the battery to. So I pulled the battery and connected the + terminal from the charger to the + on the battery and the - from the charger to the - on the charger and charged it manually, as per

Aussies HOWTO

When it hit 4.2V, I put it into the Zaurus, did D+M, page 2, Batt Voltage Adjust, 'Battery Voltage Adj' and hit 'S' to flash in the current voltage. Now a check shows the following: -

CODE

Main Bat AD:  208 (2.6V)

Flash Data:  213
  delta:  +439

ADJUST AD:  208->  647
                :  (4.1V)

And everything works fine. Phew.

However the 'Clear Adjust Values' step came back to haunt me when I booted into pdaXrom. I had a major ghosting effect, mainly seen down near the task bar. Also I had screen flicker. And now this is important, and probably also why some Z users see screen flicker in pdaXrom and others don't.

Went to D+M. Of course 'Tablet', 'COM' and 'Phase' are still '---'. So I went into Page 1, 'COM ADJ Setting', and set it to '114' which resulted in the image not flickering at all!. Then went into Page 1 'LCD Phase setting', and set it to '8' so I didn't have ghosting. No idea how I set 'Tablet', probably 'Touch Pane (VGA)', and its now currently 0.

Booted back into pdaXrom, and voila, no ghosting, no flickering.

My story. Hope it helps anyone in a similar situation.

I can't remember all the links to the posts that helped me, but I googled using both the terms 'Zaurus not charging' and 'Zaurus won't charge'.

- Bundabrg

[Bundabrg]

Sorry to resurrect such an old post, but I made an interesting discovery.

I set my battery adjust to 213, which is lower than what everyone else had. However to charge the battery higher, you need to either do what Aussie suggested and manually put the charger terminals to the battery (not something I like too much I have to admit) or buy the external charger, otherwise the Z just stops charging once it reaches the flashed in value.

I discovered that if you go to Battery Adjust, and leave it on that screen (The one that says press 'S' or 'Home' to flash), the battery will charge (IE, the charge light comes on), and it will allow you to charge the battery higher than the flashed in value (depending on the maximum the battery can take). By doing this, I got mine to 217, and that is where it won't go higher (my charger starts squealing).

I think it will also only charge the battery if the switch on the bottom of the Z (to lock in the battery) is in the unlock state... that way the service menu is running only from power and not using up the battery. It takes about 6 mintues for it charge up a number (ie, 215 to 216).

- Bundabrg